recording booth? -to sound-proof from exterior noise

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 11:30 am

Hey everyone!

I've been doing a little bit of research...
In my previous home I didn't need a recording booth, the sound was very good in the room, foam on the main wall made it.... But I just moved into a new apartment in the city... The sound is horrible. I can not do a good take of my voice, like the wave of the voice is being lost before the mic catches it, which pushes me to increase the input volume and even change the Eq I was used to like. Plus, I can hear the neighbor next door's answering machine and the boom bass from downstairs... I'm renting so it's not like I want to do some major work on the walls or anything.
I was just reading about vocal booth. All made ones are 5 grands eeeek!!!
(look: http://www.whisperroom.com/prieap.html#price )

Then there are portable ones: http://blogs.adobe.com/hartshafer/2007/02/portabooth_for.html
http://blogs.adobe.com/silke.fleischer/2007/11/portable_recording_booth.html

What do you suggest?

The room is small, rectangular has high-ceilings, a built-in closet, a window and hard-wood floors.

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 11:57 am

We have a Whisper Room in our A/V department. They don't give you complete isolation. Probably better than nothing though. I think a smaller room like ours wasn't that much(around$1500 if I remember correctly.). You might be able to build your own but remember to factor in ventilation and lighting. The cool thing about Whisper Rooms is that they can be disassembled without too much effort. They are very heavy though.

Those portabooths look kinda hokie. They might work for your needs but they won't eliminate your background noise of course.

Posted: Fri Feb 29, 2008 12:47 pm

I have a 4' x 6' WhisperRoom and I love it. I have a standard model that knocks down noise coming in or out by about 50%. Now I can't hear my neighbors, and they can't hear me. I paid just over $4K for mine including shipping. It was a breeze to put together and I will take it with me when I move out of my apartment.

http://www.whisperroom.com/pristdb.html

Posted: Mon Mar 03, 2008 9:02 pm

I just posted this (vocal baffle) on the Acoustics discussion. I know some will laugh at this but when you consider how simple, cheap and stable this is you may want to try it. Much in-room leakage comes from drives, amps and reflections as well as the open back end of the mic picking up the same. I'm sure every one has a couple extra boom stands around and inexpensive futons, the lightweight, three panel type, are pretty easy to find.

If the futon is the standard cloth with zipper ends, simply insert the booms (90 degree angle) in the zipper ends and raise to preferred level. On the ground, they're perfect for acoustic guitar and amps and the stands are the perfect height. Raised all the way it makes a nice L-shaped baffle for vocals. Add another futon and a couple inexpensive stands and you've got a complete rectangle enclosure.

Storage is simple because you just remove the futons, fold them up and the stands remain the same. It really tightens up the mic area and cuts down on leakage. It won't be a whisper room but it won't break the bank either. Hope this helps.

Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2008 7:49 pm

The only "soundproof room" I ever worked was within 100 feet of a subway train.

The room was a room built within a room filled on all sides with sand. The interior room "floated" on hard rubber strips about 3 or 4 inches thick. It had to cost the studio owners a ton $$$ to build, but it really did the job of isolating the sound of the train.

Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 7:11 am

Hey the futons are not funny at all, they are great. My recording colleague used to come over to my studio to do all his recordings as I had an Avalon and a pretty dead room. When I say pretty dead, it wasnt perfect and you could occasionally hear very low rumble from air traffic landing at Sydney Airport, but it was not often and was pretty easily HP Filtered out.

He lived in a townhouse which shared an ajoining wall. His neighbour was quite nice and didnt complain but to ensure the peace was maintained, he built a wooden frame which fully enclosed his loungeroom living area (pretty serious songwriter we talking here). He bought cheap innerspring mattresses (about 15) and lined the walls and ceiling so that no gaps were left inside this tonka boys cubby house. He asked me over one day to do some vocals for songs we were working on and I took the Avalon with me. Well the takes were so much creamier than in my studio, the room was sonically dead although it might have needed some bass traps but it was far from a problem as at the time we were not recording with amps on bass. (it was only about 3x4m)

A few years later, I now have a 6x6m mixing room exactly the same way but much more professionally designed with specific types of mattresses in certain locations. To this day, that is my mixing room and I have never looked back. As a close friend of mine owns a mattress factory in Sydney, I got high end mattresses at wholesale, and with a few bass traps this studio is absolutely awesome for tracking or mixing, although when doing things like acoustic guitars, we track from downstairs where there is timber flooring in our very large living room.

I monitor on Tannoy 6Ds (love em), even the slightest pan seting is noticeable, vocals sit in an acoustic ball in front of your face and you can feel a gorgeous front to rear depth in anything you mix. Anyone who is trying to do a great studio on a budget and is not concerned with having to do National Quality pro mixes, this is one damn fantastic way to start getting a room to show you what your individual sounds actually sound like without spending a million dollars. Your demo's with be more than just amatuer sounding and if you have a lot of outboard gear and know what you are doing, you will be up there with the best of em.

A.

Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 8:39 am

What you want is the foam, what you don't want is the hundreds of interconnected springs...

Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 8:28 pm

Anybody got a match?

Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2008 5:43 am

ROFL.

House fires aren't funny.

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